I Ll Never Die Analysis

The storyteller is able to keep his or her memories fresh and alive through the act of telling stories. At the age of forty-three, Tim O’Brien is still able to remember his childhood friend, Linda, who died when he was nine. “Even now I can see her walking down the aisle of the old State Theater in Worthington, Minnesota. I can see her face in profile beside me, the cheeks softly lighted by coming attractions.” Linda is given the gift of life through death by the power of the story. She not only lives in the mind of Tim O’Brien, but now Linda can live in the mind of anyone of whom he tells the story to. O’Brien’s audience is even graced with the pleasure of imagining what Linda looked like, “There were little crinkles at her eyes, her lips open and gently curving at the corners.” The audience can nearly see Linda, nine years old, standing in a childlike manner before

O’Brien juxtaposes his first encounter with death versus his encounters with death as a soldier in the quote: “...in the spell memory and imagination... I’m gazing into some other world, a place...where there are no bodies at

The beginning of this chapter mainly demonstrates the idea of shame towards one's response to change. By using a regretful tone, O'Brien is able to convey the reader to believe that he feels shame and embarrassment towards his actions that are revealed later in the chapter.

The novel itself is a flashback to the pass of a nightmare that he will never forget. O’ Brien is still alive, I cannot imagine having flash backs to the past and being reminded of a frightening nightmare. The best flashback in the novel reads “his right arm was gone… At his face there were already many flies and gnats.” O’Brien then revisits his childhood: “Linda was nine then, as I was, but we were in love…. she died of course. Nine years old and she died.” This situation in the time of war brought him to think of someone he truly loved. Flashbacks are

Tim Meeker concludes the epilogue with,” But somehow, even fifty years later, I keep thinking that there might have been another way, besides war, to achieve the same end” (Collier and Collier 211). Fifty years after the war, Meeker reflects on his life during the Revolutionary War with Britain and the American colonies. He has been torn between the sides of war, fought with family, experienced deaths of loved ones, and other conflicts the war has brought him. Authors James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier express Meeker’s troubles and thoughts along with lessons that the war has taught him. Tim learned from the way war affected him that war is futile.

The emotional pain of reliving the story arouses sympathy in the reader, which as a result allows the audience to identify with Tim’s struggle. He also mentions having to “live with it, feeling the shame, trying to push it away,” which evokes empathy in the reader. It is certain that throughout one’s lifetime, they will experience an event that leaves them guilt-stricken or feeling shameful. By describing his feelings towards the story, O’Brien arouses sympathy in the reader in a way similar to the “ordinary world” phase of the hero’s journey archetype.

During this work, O’Brien keeps a casual tone. It sometimes gets more formal and serious, but for the most part, it’s friendly and almost playful. When he is describing the conversations he had with his friends, he looks back on them with happiness. Consequently, when he is describing the death of one of his friends, his tone gets more somber and less playful. For example, the entire chapter of “Stockings” is devoted to describing the soldier Henry Dobbins and an interesting knack of his. “Even now, twenty years later, I can see him wrapping his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck before heading out on an ambush.” This cute, two page chapter provides a bit of relief after the chapter about Mary Anne Belle. It has light connotations and is a generally funny short story. Later in the book, however, he gets more serious when talking about the death of his dear friend Kiowa. He

O'Brien gives his characters lives outside the story and dedicates his fiction to their memory. In On the Rainy River, for example, O'Brien writes that he never really thanked the old man

Many authors use storytelling as a vehicle to convey the immortality of past selves and those who have passed to not only in their piece of literature but in their life as an author. In Tim O’Brien’s work of fiction The Things They Carried, through his final chapter “The Lives of the Dead,” O 'Brien conveys that writing is a matter of survival since, the powers of storytelling can ensure the immortality of all those who were significant in his life. Through their immortality, O’Brien has the ability to save himself with a simple story. Through snippets of main plot event of other chapters, O’Brien speaks to the fact the dead have not actually left; they are gone physically, but not spiritually or emotionally. They live on in memories as Linda lives on in the memories of O’Brien and as many of his war buddies live on through his stories. He can revive them and bring them back to the world through his writings and through these emotions or events he experienced with them and with their deaths can make them immortal. Through the reminiscent stories of Linda and O’Brien’s war companions and himself, O’Brien conveys that storytelling allows people to reanimate others who have died and past selves to create an immortality of humans.

In “Lives of the Dead”, O’Brien’s own innocence is preserved through the memory of Linda, a memory that remains untarnished by the inevitable corruption that results from life. O’Brien’s writings “save Linda’s life. Not her body--her life” (236). Storytelling and memories preserve the value of Linda’s existence while simultaneously allowing O’Brien to process death and destruction in a way that maintains a degree of optimism regarding his own life and future. Juxtaposing the images of body and life emphasizes his desire to save the idea of Linda while accepting the loss of her physical presence. O’Brien rejects the idea of death as absolute and final; instead he suggests that “once you are alive, you can never be dead” (244). Linda’s death solidifies her importance in O’Brien’s own development; she teaches him about life and real love as much as in death as in life. O’Brien’s paradoxical statement defines the lasting impact of Linda on him; her presence in his stories keeps her alive through memory; memories that even her death

Drawing upon the ability of fiction to preserve life against death, O 'Brien says that, during wartime, that they were able to "[keep] the dead alive with stories" (239). To the living, stories were a way to keep the memory of the dead alive, but to the dead, it was the simple act of remembering that kept them alive: "That 's what a story does. The bodies are animated. You make the dead talk" (232). This theme of preservation is exemplified by story of Linda, in which O 'Brien uses the power of storytelling and memory to keep people alive: "Stories can save us. I 'm forty-three years old, and a writer now, and even still, right here, I keep dreaming Linda alive...They 're all dead. But in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world." (225).

Writing from different viewpoints allows the author, Tim O’Brien, to express himself in a more comfortable manner. Written in this viewpoint, the story is read as a tale instead of an autobiography and the author becomes more distant with the story like he is looking into it rather than writing it.

Love You Forever is a classic heart-warming story by Robert Munsch built around a simple, but eternally meaningful commitment from a mother to a child to love him forever. Robert Munsch has become a world-renowned author of children’s books for his unique use of exaggerated expressions that produce sounds that are very appealing and fun for children. In Love You Forever Munsch uses words like “crazy” and “zoo” to add the effect of comedy but the overall theme of the story strikes chords that are much deeper than exaggerated expressions (Munsch np). Robert Munsch started Love you Forever as a song: “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll

Death is inevitable, there is no running nor escaping it. Throughout “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”, it is

“I could not die. And that was the turning point in my life. I thought that since I could not die, let me try and live now” (“I am what” 25). This quote from Abhina Aher from Mumbai, India is full of many stories that emulate the modern day hijra. Abhina’s complete story will follow further on. But what is a hijra and how can Abhina’s story relate? Hijra can mean many things, but most of all, “hijra” means “strong willed”, because despite changes and challenges facing this group throughout time, the hijras of India and South Asia have prevailed.